We love Pimoroni. Their history as a company has been very intricately linked with ours, starting from the day that Paul Beech won the competition to design our logo back in 2011. Since then he’s gone from being a penniless graphic designer to owning a small factory with his friend Jon Williamson, and employing a growing group of people in Sheffield, all on the back of his work with Raspberry Pi. They’ve become an incredibly valuable part of the Pi ecosystem (we’re teaming up with them for Maker Faire NY later this month – come and visit us at the Pimoroni stand), and have been crazy-busy manufacturing cases and accessories for the Pi, running our Swag Store (please buy some swag – every penny of profit goes to support our charitable aims and educate kids), and bringing manufacturing and employment back to a part of England that really needs it. They’re also extraordinarily nice people. (Jon is a vegetarian, but he’s so lovely that we don’t hold it against him.)

PiHub is a sign of the way things are moving at Pimoroni: you may have noticed that until recently, they were only making things they could laser cut. Recently they took delivery of a pick and place machine, have done a lot of work with PCB design packages, and have started producing electronics too. PiGlow was their first product in the range: PiHub comes about because they spotted that not all powered hubs are created equal, and that many of you are looking for a hub designed especially to work with your Raspberry Pi.

And they’re made in Pimoroni’s workshop in the UK. Let’s take a quick trip through the arched window:

PiHub retails at Pimoroni and at Cyntech for £13.95 on its own, and £19.95 with a 3000mA power supply. We think that’s an insanely good deal. It’s made in the UK, it’s made with your Pi in mind, we think it’s adorable (there’s one on my desk, one on Emma’s desk and one on Gordon’s desk at the moment), and we love watching Pimoroni go from strength to strength.

Alex at RasPi.TV has had a prototype PiHub to play with for a while, and has put together this video introducing it. Let us know what you think of it too – and thanks to Paul, Jon and everybody at Pimoroni!

Suggestion for your second generation. Typically I use Raspi and other arm boxen as the manager of Arduino and other devices. I search for hubs that have a 12v power supply so that I can power the hub directly from a battery. Extra bonus points if your hub has the voltage hardiness of an Arduino.

You are correct – all hubs are NOT created equal and when you find one that works for you you should buy a box full

I have bought cheaper Hubs that have turned out to not be up to the job of running the Pi. As a result I spent quite some time trying to diagnose my network connection before realising it was a power issue.

I wonder if you can run 2 or 3 Raspberry Pis from it if you don’t need it for connecting extra USB accessories to. Based on the power of the power supply it should be, in which case could provide a good way to power multiple Raspberry Pis in a classroom (although I don’t suppose that is officially supported).

Looking at the photos it looks like Babbage has taken a shine to his new hub!

Stewart, that is simply going to have to be tried. I’ve found most of my setups get by happily on half an amp. I suspect it could power four Pis if you treat it as a dumb power supply (which is most certainly isn’t).

* It comes with a 3A power supply, with a British plug
* The hub is fused with a polyfuse, which hopefully isn’t sized too cramped, or it will introduce unwanted voltage drops.
* One of it USB output ports is specifically designed to power the PI through its Front Port, (that is through the Micro-USB port) So its not bypassing the PI’s polyfuse.
* The hubs power supply has an output voltage that is ideally suited for the PI of 5.2V instead of 5.0V, so any small losses in cables and fuses are compensated
* It does NOT back-feed the PI, so it uses two cables to connect to the PI, not just one.

What if they made a case where both the RasPI AND the hub’s PCB could be sandwiched into. It could power the RasPI directly from the GPIO pins. All in a nice small package. Could they provide USB functionnality through the other GPIO pins ? I don’t think so but that’d be cool.

not really a good idea to enter power through the GPIO header, for one you make using the GPIO’s inaccessible, and if you are going to bypass the Polyfuse, why not do in through the Standard B cable?
If you add your own 1.1A Fuse to the B port then there is no disadvantage in “back-powering” the PI, and the hub could be placed on top of, or under the PI and be connected with a short USB cable.
maybe a second model?

One thing that you typically never see specified is whether a hub has only one TT overall (USB Transaction Translator), or one for each port. When you have both USB 1.1 (keyboard/mouse) and USB 2.0 (memory stick, wifi) devices, the Pi does better with “TT per port” type hubs, which is something none of the cheap ebay hubs provide. If this design does offer one TT per port you should specify that, because it is a selling point.

I am not sure this is necessarily what I need: too many cables involved.

I have a 4-way powered hub bought ages before I bought the Pi.

The hub plugs into the Pi with a USB to mini USB converter plug so it sits right next to the Pi. The Pi is powered by splitting the 5v cable to power both the hub and the Pi. This just seems a better, more compact arrangement, but nothing like as well engineered or flashy.

But don’t worry, I will be buying the PiHub for the other Pi that I have.

This is very ugly, especially when all the cables stick out in each direction. This is a problem that the PI in itself and most of the USB hubs have in common.

I’d like to have:
a) a square design fitting right under an existing case
b) two extra short cables or better yet “hard links” for power an signal
c) 7 ports facing along one long side with enough gap between them, preferable you could choose if you prefer the HDMI or the composite video side by some clever mechanism

When I read “a hub designed especially to work with your Raspberry Pi” I expected something rather as you have described. The PiHub is very pretty and it seems to be well featured electronically, but it would be awkward in any setting I would use it. A pity.

Some Amazon reviewers complain that the D-Link degrades all ports to USB 1.1 if only one device is using 1.1 – which implies that it does not have per-port TT (see post 9 above). That would be disappointing for a hub of that price.

I have what might be considered an unusual request. How about you folks team up with Adafruit here in the USA and license them to manufacture your special Pi Hub in the USA. They would provide the power supply with USA type electrical connections rather than with English connections. Plus, I could save a bit on shipping. I really like this idea and I might buy a couple, but I live in the States and don’t like having to fix up the electricity and pay extra postage.

Taken from http://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pihub“Small enough to fit in your pocket but with enough power to charge mobile phones, run hard drives and other power-hungry gadgets the PIHUB is the must have accessory for the Raspberry Pi.”

Theres no mention this will power a PI.
If this device was “confirmed” to power a pi unit, i’d buy one in a snap.

If its capable of powering a Pi, you guys should really market it as the “All you need Power + Hub for the Pi” instead of confusing the buyer into thinking its only a powered usb hub (a nice looking one at that mind).

Don’t know if it is a big problem, but I saw it in the picture – if you want to avoid solder bridges you should consider adding ‘solder thieves’ to the lands of the leaded joints. These should trial out ‘behind’ the lands, along the same plane as the direction of travel through the wave solder machine.
The angles you have selected for the orientation of the USB ports will be contributing to this.

Didn’t mean that as a slam, It’s cute, it’s just not what I think of when I want a tool… I don’t want it to be cute looking, I want it to be really functional. *MY* personal preference would be something as I had described elsewhere in the thread, where it would be somehow integrated into one of their cases to stack under a Pi and the case hold both together. THAT would be super functional and useful.

For kids, this is fine. For a hobbiest who is using the Pi as a tool, something shaped like the logo is a bit too “kiddie” looking for my taste.

I didn’t do the engineering, but if I did I would keep the idea of power supply, hub, and mainboard in separate cases with plenty of air between them, as did the folks at PiMoroni. Heat dissipation would be my main reason, but RF interference is also a concern at today’s data rates. Cute as it might be to put everything in one nice square box, if you do you’d better make it a big box with a fan in it. Oh yes that’s right we already have those!

Plan is to make a fully enclosed unit with 7 port (internal and external) USB Hub, 2.5” HDD, Patch Bay (to neaten up the spider web), On/Off switch etc. Just waiting on the latest prototype & some parts to make sure it’s all working. Should have a final update in a couple of weeks.

Very interesting… Personally I’d prefer vertical stacking over horizontal layout like you guys did (plus it would eliminate having to replicate ports, but if the desire is to bring all the ports out to 1 side, then I guess what you did is fine.)

I WOULD suggest going with a bigger PSU though. 2A is cutting it a bit too low for a 7 port hub. USB Spec calls for each port to provide 500ma… That’s not including the 1A you need for the Pi itself… I wouldn’t go with anything less than a 3.5A or even a 4A in this case just to leave yourselves some headroom.

The educational roots of the Pi shine through at many levels.
There will be almost as many wish list combinations as there are users.
For me I like the flat approach over the stackable approach as it makes it easier to hide the boxes behind the TV or into what ever project I am making.

The Hub is polyfuse protected to prevent rogue devices, as is the Pi for power. Pretty standard for hubs really. Have a read of the USB spec about what can provide power and when, it’s a barrel of laughs :-)

A case for RasPi + PiHub and the possibility to power the hub from up to around 18V would be really great! Until then there is no big difference between this and the other hubs, although this looks really nice!

But… ANOTHER power brick? Seriously, I thought we’d settled this; Micro USB power bricks and nothing else. I thought we’d agreed to chuck out all our individual bricks from Nokia, Amstrad, Sony, heck I even threw out my 1970s Grandstand video game power brick.

Why couldn’t this have used a Micro USB power brick? I know for a fact that Micro USB power (not data) can go up to at least 2.1 Amps, because I have one right here on my desk in front of me. Shouldn’t this have been powered by a 3 Amp Micro USB power brick?

I know exactly what’ll happen. My daughter and I will pack up our Pis and our netbook and the hub, head out to a Raspberry Jam, we’ll get there and we’ll find… FORGOT THE POWER BRICK. And everyone will say “hey, no problem, you can borrow my power brick, ‘cos everything uses Micro USB power these days, right?” and I will swear, profusely, in front of my daughter. Think of the children!

For those of you who are looking for a solution to power the RasPi and/or PiHub from 12V car battery or similar power source – you can use BEC/UBEC. Those are common ir RC cars etc. and usually accept 5.5-26V input. And if you can’t find one you can always order from Aliexpress.

Spot on, I have a pi doing environmental monitoring in my polytunnel. I use a 12v leisure battery (topped up by a solar panel ) to run my pi via 6v regulator and a diode which drops the voltage to 5.3v ish. works like a charm :-)

Many of the negative comments on this are that it doesn’t look professional or it looks too cute!
Whilst some people may want something for a more business like appearance that’s not who this is aimed at.

Later today I’m meeting with the IT teacher of a local primary school about teaching programming to 8 to 9 year olds. As far as I’m concerned there is no such thing as “too cute” for 8 year olds. Well perhaps if it was fluffy that may be pushing it a bit for some of the kids (no disrespect to Babbage – he’s cool!).

This hub looks just the sort of thing that can show them that computers don’t need to be boring black boxes and that it’s all about creativity, both in terms of good looking “gadgets” and the software that goes on inside. This applies to older children as well who will likely be studying some form of creative art subject and many of whom already have novelty USB memory sticks.

I’m not sure whether I am going to be using Raspberry Pis for teaching this time, it depends upon how the discussion goes with the teacher, but if I do use the Pi then I would certainly like to get a couple of these to power the Pis from. Even if not then I still have a variety of different cases anyway (PiBow, Pibow Timber, 2-colour and transparent cases – as well as my own Pirate Treasure Chest http://www.penguintutor.com/news/raspberrypi/rasp-pirate ).

It depends upon whether I need to buy HDMI->VGA adapters or not whether I’ve got some spare money to get some (I’m funding this all myself using my own Pis and accessories).

I do like the idea of having a case with a built in hub that could help remove some of the tangle of wires associated with the Raspberry Pi, which would be good for a more formal desktop, but as far as making something to appeal to kids this hits the nail on the head. I’m sure there is a market for both types. If someone is wanting to look at a combined hub and Pi case then I’m sure they can make a successful business out of that as well.

Note – this is all my own opinion. I am not involved with the Pi foundation – or Pimoroni.
The course I’m looking at running is Code Club as a volunteer STEM Ambassador

Looks lovely well thought out and well made and creating jobs in the UK is always to be applauded. For the Mk II can I suggest more rectangular with the option of naked and no case for integration purposes? Oh and as mentioned above 12V input would be a serious bonus for all those making Car/Boat Pi’s :-) … Job well done!

However, it is really intended for desktop use (and great for teaching the kiddies as some mentioned). But I guess I always thought of the RPi as an “embedded” project. Perhaps a second, smaller, caseless hub could also be implemented for those who want to integrate the hub into a project? Or maybe a “shield” that fit on top of the Pi.

A kickstarter from Australia has a motherboard for the Pi version 2 called Fairywren. It has built in USB hub, and a place for a laptop SATA drive. Take a look. It is not as cute as this, but it does hide the cables. Find Geekroo.

On an individual kid basis, this is fun, but as I can tell you from extensive personal experience at many Jams and classroom sessions, the fewer wires coming from one direction, the better. Trying to explain to a class of kids already bouncing off the walls where the yet-another gray/white/black cable needs to go is infinitely easier when they can count from one clear starting point, “One, two, three, four, five!”, not, “OK, starting from the yellow blockish-looking thingy, and counting to the left, little black thingy, around the corner is the big silver thingy with two slots, and next to that is the shorter silver thingy with a big hole, and around the corner from that is the short, wide hole, and then around the corner from that is the tiny short, wide thingy, and then there’s the flat little card-looking doodad, and then we want to stick the gadget with 26 holes in it over the 26 gold spiky jobber-doos … ”

At least there’s no dual USB ports as on the Pi Model B, as when only one cable/device is plugged in, if torque is applied to a USB cable vertically, it can snap off the white plastic alignment tab inside each USB port.

I dare you to send the Silicon Valley Raspberry Jam any future prototypes and get the best feedback of any testers you’ve ever even heard of, much less dealt with to any depth. Go ahead, make our day … :D

Its a nice design dont get me wrong. But if a Pi specific hub is to be recommended surely it would make a heck of a lot more sense for it to be something that uses the same size board as a Pi, with some sort of Pi + Hub case built into one.

I guess its a nice novelty but for the price I just dont see a lot here other than the ‘oh that looks nice’ factor.

It’s a pitty that need to sacrifice one of the ports to power raspberry, I’ll prefer to have a dummy usb port to power the raspberry, and have the 4 free, more over when one can provide 1A, and can be used to power a 2,5″ hard disk by example.

39 comments (plus replies) and no one has mentioned that the PCB right at the front (in the photo of the stack of them) has the USB port mounted wrongly ;) It’s the only one I can see like that, but it’s the one right at the front.

That aside, I always like to see accessories that are guaranteed to work correctly, especially power-related ones. I bet there’s still a lot of people out there that have problems with their Pi locking up or corrupting the SD card and don’t realise that they have a rubbish power supply.

Mine just arrived, will be having a proper play over the weekend. Love the idea of it powering the PI as well.
I do wonder though, (and some of the comments above might bear this out) if there’s a market for a cross between Pibow and the PiHub – a case that includes a space for the pi and the usb hub, along with a power switch – so you effectively have the stuff to go from power supply to PI inside the case, and we just have 3 or 4 usb sockets facing outwards on the device, maybe 1 of them being high powered. That would make things a lot tidier really – a cable to the video, a cable to the power, possibly a network cable and a few usb sockets for keyboard/mouse/wifi or whatever.